Kilmar Abrego Garcia back in U.S. to face new alien smuggling charges

Kilmar Abrego Garcia is back in U.S. custody, Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Friday. The Salvadoran national was secretly indicted on conspiracy and alien smuggling charges last month, according to court documents unsealed on Friday. Bondi said a federal grand jury found that over a nine-year period, Abrego Garcia played a significant role in a human smuggling operation, making more than 100 trips to help traffic illegal migrants into the United States. El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele agreed to return Abrego Garcia when presented with a DOJ arrest warrant, the attorney general said. Abrego Garcia is expected to stand trial in Nashville.

Why was his initial deportation so controversial? Abrego Garcia had been living in Maryland under temporary protected legal status until the Homeland Security Department deported him with several alleged gang members in March to a prison in El Salvador. His detainment has been the subject of several court orders after Immigration and Customs Enforcement admitted he was mistakenly deported. While the Trump administration argues that he is a member of the violent MS-13 gang, a 2019 immigration court order said that while he is subject to deportation, he cannot be removed to his home country due to safety concerns. Last month, the Supreme Court weighed in and ruled that his deportation was illegal and instructed the Trump administration to facilitate his return. Instead, the administration said it had no authority to require El Salvador to return Abrego Garcia.

What are the charges based on? According to the indictment, the government is accusing Abrego Garcia of conspiring to illegally transport other immigrants into the United States. In 2022, police conducted a traffic stop on Abrego Garcia and allegedly found him driving nine other men in an SUV. The indictment states that all were Hispanic and none had identification. The indictment cites six unidentified accomplices, five of whom are El Salvadoran nationals and one of whom is from Guatemala. The government argues that Abrego Garcia frequently worked with other gang members to transport immigrants from Texas to various parts of the country. The unnamed co-conspirators allege Abrego Garcia abused women, trafficked firearms, solicited nude photographs of a minor, and played a role in the murder of a rival gang member’s mother, Bondi alleged in a Friday afternoon news conference. However, the indictment does not charge him with these alleged crimes. Bondi said that if convicted, Abrego Garcia would serve his term in an American prison and then be deported again.

Dig deeper: Read Leo Briceno and Josh Schumacher’s report on how the government relied on the Alien Enemies Act and tattoos to identify and deport alleged gang members.